If you're even a casual cable television flipper, there's no doubt you've stumbled across at
least one episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
But how much do you really know about it?
Here's a look at some things even big fans don't know about Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
For a piece of food programming to become as wildly successful as Diners, Drive-Ins
and Dives has been over its 30-season run, you'd think it would have to have been assembled
by a crack team of grizzled Food Network executives.
Not so!
According to Alan Salkin in his book From Scratch: Inside the Food Network, series creator
David Page was working as an investigative news producer for ABC and NBC when he decided
to make the leap into food-related programming, eventually working with Al Roker on specials
for the Food Network.
He spent months pitching show ideas to Food Network programming executives before striking
television gold in 2006 with Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
Success wasn't all it was cracked up to be, though.
In 2011, after being fired from the show as producer, Page accused host Guy Fieri of sexist,
homophobic, and anti-semitic behavior.
In an interview with City Pages, he alleged that Fieri had walked out of a restaurant
during filming because he believed the owners to be gay.
Page said,
"Guy had decided that the two men running the restaurant were life partners.
He said, 'You can't send me to talk to gay people without warning!
Those people weird me out!'"
Page also said that he had to step in to prevent Fieri from making inappropriate comments with
female restaurant employees.
"Anytime any woman mentioned 'cream,' Guy went into a sexual riff.
When cutting the show, you had to tell the editors to watch Guy's eye line, because it's
always on breasts."
Further, he alleged that Fieri made anti-semitic comments to him during a dispute over book
royalties.
"Guy said to me: 'You know, it's true: Jews are cheap.'"
Needless to say, Fieri denied the allegations in a public statement that read in part,
"Guy's reputation speaks for itself.
He's a standup guy who does right by people.
He would never make the kind of comments attributed to him in this story, and anyone who knows
or has even met him knows that."
Nothing says roadtrip like a good old fashioned greasy spoon on the side of the highway.
And if you want to plan a road trip around visiting some of the dive joints featured
on the show, you're in luck, because a number of fan websites including tvfoodmaps.com and
flavortownusa.com have mapped out the locations of all the featured establishments.
So jump in your convertible and grab your Tums, because it's time for a road trip!
If you've toiled for years under the false impression that Guy Fieri was the lead singer
of the band Smash Mouth, you're not alone.
It wasn't until the real Steve Harwell's surprise appearance on a 2010 episode of Diners, Drive-Ins
and Dives that we realized: There's TWO of them.
But Harwell wasn't the only celebrity to grace the doorstep of Triple-D. Throughout the years,
the show has had a number of celebrity guest appearances, including Matthew McConaughey,
Kid Rock, and the cast of Grown Ups 2.
According to the book From Scratch: Inside the Food Network by Allen Salkin, billionaire
hedge fund manager Steve Cohen once paid $100,000 to be Fieri's bro for a day, during which
they drove around Cohen's home state of Connecticut and visited various diners, re-enacting a
"fantasy episode" of Triple-D. Cohen has denied this weird allegation, but the two became
good enough friends that Fieri eventually visited Cohen's favorite joint, Super Duper
Weenie, on a real episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
"Now, I've been hearing a lot about a place called Super Duper Weenie in Connecticut.
I have friends who live in Connecticut, Alex and Steve."
Long before anyone had thought to prop sunglasses on the backs of their heads, you know, opposite
the location of your eyes, conveniently located in the front, and before every American in
the country knew what "Donkey Sauce" was, Triple-D frontman Guy Fieri got his start
on television in a different way: hawking Flowmaster mufflers in 2001.
"Don't be fooled with these imitations.
The quality's not there!
For extreme durability, maximum horsepower and torque, Flowmaster delivers true American
built performance!"
Turns out the guy can actually sell anything!
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